» 1990s
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm – Crash Test Dummies
And now, dear friends, a candidate for worst one-hit wonder ever. “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” by Crash Test Dummies is a love-it-or-hate-it ditty by beloved Canadian band, Crash Test Dummies (at least they were beloved in Canada for a few years). Hear more: Canadian one-hit wonders The lyrics focus on kids with abnormalities (white hair, birthmarks and Pentecostal parents). A bold move since the song potentially offends all people with white hair, birthmarks and “lurch and shake” religious … Read entire article »
What is Love – Haddaway
If you were Haddaway, do you think you would be embarassed that your song became the centerpiece to a Saturday Night Live sketch that was so popular that it was expanded into a nearly unwatchable movie titled Night at the Roxbury? Or would you be proud? If I’m Haddaway, I’m completely content to have unleashed a pop song that is so relentless, it enters your brain, sits down on the couch, makes a ham sandwich, orders … Read entire article »
I Love You Always Forever – Donna Lewis
Some artists suffer from bad timing. Take Donna Lewis and her biggest hit, “I Love You Always Forever.” This song is tied with a few other songs for the longest chart run at the number two position on the Billboard Hot 100. Nine weeks. But it never reached the #1 position because a little cultural phenomenon titled “Macarena” by Los del Rio dominated the charts for more than three months in 1996, keeping Welsh singer Donna … Read entire article »
Everything But the Girl – Missing
“Missing” by Everything But the Girl is a tremendous pop song. One of the best of the 1990s. In fact, I would place it in the same company as “You Get What You Give” by New Radicals as a nearly perfect pop song. Great chorus Great musical hook. Great vocal performance. If you’ve paid attention to Everything But the Girl since the band’s founding in the early 1980s, you realize “Missing” sounds nothing like their early … Read entire article »
Closing Time – Semisonic
Last call at a bar is often a place of desperation. It’s particularly obvious if you’re standing on the stage and looking at an audience that is urgently seeking love, or at least a few hours of affection. In the early 1990s I spent lots of time in bars playing guitar in a cover band. Stone cold sober. One of the most interesting, fascinating and horrifying parts of most gigs was watching the animals at … Read entire article »
Please Don’t Go – KWS
There are good cover versions of songs. And there are bad ones. I can’t decide if “Please Don’t Go” by KWS is the best cover version ever because it is so true to the melody and vocal stylings of the original by K.C. and the Sunshine Band. Or it’s possibly the worst ever because it so slavisly apes the original. In other words, it brings very little new or interesting to the equation. What do you … Read entire article »
The Humpty Dance – Digital Underground
By the standards of TopOneHitWonders.com, “The Humpty Dance” is NOT a one-hit wonder. I’m sure you think Digital Underground only had a single song reach the Billboard Top 40. I know that VH1 named “The Humpty Dance” the 12th Greatest One-Hit Wonder of the 1990s. If I give you a quiz right now to name Digital Underground’s SECOND Top 40 hit, you will likely draw a blank (I did as well and it took some serious Googling … Read entire article »
Filed under: 1990s
A Whole New World – Regina Belle and Peabo Bryson
If you have young kids in the house. If you have young kids in the neighborhood. If you were a young kid in the 1990s, you know this song. That’s because “A Whole New World” is the title track to Disney’s animated 1992 film, Aladdin, that has earned more than $500 million dollars worldwide. That’s half-a-billion dollars for an animated movie. That’s simply astounding. It’s also the kind of broad reach and wide appeal that can transform … Read entire article »